Philadelphia -- Part 2

We saw SO much while we were in Philly, and we were only in the city for one day. Hence the two posts. Thanks to my awesome Mother-in-law's scheduling we got to see everything!

After the tour of Independence Hall, we backtracked on Market Street to find something for lunch. I loved the streets of Philadelphia and on Market Street you get a view of the end of City Hall.

That building is gorgeous and huge! It's more like a state capitol than city hall.

We headed to the Reading Terminal Market, housed in the former Reading Terminal Train Station. Monopoly anyone?

There are over 100 merchants that sell food in this enclosed space. Its a chaotic place with winding paths between booths. Market signs, smells, people and displayed food all combine into a cacophonous atmosphere. It's great. 

Led by Kris, we headed to the Pennsylvania Dutch section where we sat down on stools at the bar of an Amish booth.

Lunch consisted of various sandwiches. Brian had a Philly cheesestake and I had a cheeseburger. The ingredients were so fresh and full of flavor. I may have had a bite (or seven) of Brian's sandwich and the tomato on my burger was 2-inches thick and bursting with flavor. That's one of my biggest complaints about NYC produce, their tomatoes are flavorless.

Just because our food wasn't delicious enough, we topped it off with a homemade Amish apple cinnamon dumpling. Brian and I shared one because they were so big. They brought us a container of heavy cream and we poured an ample amount over the dumpling's top. It was marvelous, and my mouth is watering right now while I'm writing about it.

The last thing we did before leaving the city was take a tour of the Masonic Temple. It was a very interesting experience. The rooms are very flashy and ornate. Many of the Founding Fathers were Freemasons. 

After taking the tour, I still don't know much about Freemasons. The tour guide didn't really answer any of our questions, and most of the information presented was about the dimensions of the rooms, etc. They did have some artifacts belonging to George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in the library room, so that was cool.

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Kris had wanted to show us the Wanamaker Organ that is in the Philadelphia Macy's. We didn't get to hear it play, but we took a few moments to look at it. It's very large and you only see a small portion of the pipes, the rest of which are inside the wall.

We found a giant eagle sculpture and had to take a moment for photos. Brian and Tom just love having their picture taken.

On our way out of the city we drove by the Philadelphia Art Museum. It's a gorgeous building and I wouldn't mind going back to visit it. At one time they had a statue of Rocky Balboa from the "Rocky" movies on top of the steps. I guess they decided that was silly or something because they moved it into the Museum's Gardens.

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We really enjoyed our time in Philadelphia, and would love to go back.